a moment of clarity

There be charts!

As in, if you let too much paid time build up they will stop giving it to you until you use some.

We dance a delicate line around that limit, making sure we don’t lose any time.

To assist me, I built a spreadsheet that calculates what my time bank looks like at any given time and is color-coded to warn me when action is needed.

My supervisor emailed me to notify me that I was getting close. If the employees don’t take time off, our management gets yelled at for not managing us properly.

I responded not to worry, I already had time requested and approved off and would be good, per my colorful spreadsheet, until February.

Her response?

“I should have known you would have a spreadsheet and that it would be colorful.”

You see, I’m sort of know for spreadsheets in my department, and increasingly in the company. (Scary.)

I like charts and graphs and data.

Not so keen on math itself, but I like playing with the numbers.

And I like to add color to it.

Which leads me to…

How come no one ever mentioned how cool the tracking tools you get for NaNoWriMo are?

Graphs!

Stats!

Numbers!

Needs more color!

As you can see, I’m off to a great start and slightly exceeded the daily goal.

We’ll see if pretty charts keep me inspired come week 2.

…

As requested, here’s a snippet:

Cable lay on his berth, listening to the murmur of the engines below him. The engine growled lower than it had for the past few days, they were slowing down. This meant they would be leaving the dark of full space and approaching dirt. That meant there would be work after class, if not today then tomorrow. If not today he might be able to get to the viewing deck and watch the solar sails unfold. The shimmering fabric was mesmerizing as the ripples caught radiation to refuel the ship.

But for now it was still early, the buzzer to wake him for class wouldn’t go off for another ten ticks at least. He had time to relax.

Holding perfectly still under the thin blanket, he slowed his breathing to match the pulse of the engine. With the slow pounding his awareness expanded, slipping out to the edge of the ship. He wore her skin as his own, felt caresses against his metal form. Space only looked empty; Cable knew better.